Coal is among the largest sources of global warming pollution in the world. Obtaining it destroys mountains, burning it releases hazardous emissions, and disposing of it results in hazardous toxic waste. Coal is scorching the planet and leaving a legacy of devastation in its wake.
That’s why we partnered with Macroclimate® to screen mutual funds for the Macroclimate® 50 – an exclusion list of the 50 largest public-company owners of coal-fired power plants in Developed Markets plus China and India.
Macroclimate® compiled the list of 50 companies using open-source data on coal-fired power plants worldwide. These companies are emitting massive amounts of CO2 and fueling climate change - and given coal’s volatility and unsustainable business model, it is becoming an increasingly risky investment.
A majority of expert panelists (64%) in 2014 believed that retiring (or sequestering) coal-fired power plants would be the single most effective use of major investments to limit global warming and the vast majority (84%) expected that coal-fired power plants alone will contribute between 25% and 60% or more of gross carbon emissions to the atmosphere between then and 2020. This is due in large part to the proliferation of new coal plants in China and in India. China and India have increased from less than a third of The Macroclimate® 50 companies to now making up one half of the list.
Macroclimate periodically compiles extracts from Global Coal Plant Tracker, associates owners of the largest operating plants (including planned and new construction) in the relevant geographic areas with their respective publicly-traded companies, excludes companies rapidly phasing out their coal fleet in alignment with the Paris Agreement, and then ranks the remaining companies by their total coal-fired energy capacity (MWe). See the full methodology
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